Tab

How to spell tab

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tab

What does tab mean?

1. nounA small flap, strip, or projecting label attached to something to help identify, hold, or pull it.
2. nounAn informal running total of what a customer owes, especially at a bar or restaurant.
3. nounA key that advances the cursor, or one of several clickable panels in software for switching views.

Tab in a sentence

• She pulled the metal tab to open the can of soup.

• He offered to pick up the tab for the whole table.

• Press the tab key to jump to the next field in the form.

• Each file in the cabinet had a coloured tab for quick sorting.

• The bartender kept her drinks on a tab until closing time.

• She opened the recipe in a separate browser tab.

Where does tab come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

Tab appeared in English in the early 1600s, and its exact origin is genuinely murky. The likeliest explanation is that it is a shortened, informal coinage related to words such as tag and tap, all of which describe a small projecting piece attached to something larger; the cluster of similar short words makes it hard to single out one parent. In its earliest uses it meant a small flap or strap of material, and the sense of a projecting label or marker grew naturally from that. The informal meaning of a running bill or account, as in 'pick up the tab', developed in American English in the late nineteenth century, probably as a clipping of 'tabulation' or simply from the idea of a tab kept on what a customer owed. Because the word is so short and phonetically regular, its spelling has never been a real trap, which is one reason it has stayed stable for four centuries.

How the word is built

• tab (a single, unanalysable root; no prefix or suffix)